Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

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Expert Care for Kids with Urgent Needs

Sanford Children’s Pediatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs) provide the highest level of medical care for children and young adults from fellowship-trained providers. Young patients in the PICU get immediate attention for critical injuries or illnesses.

Some conditions treated in the PICU include:

  • Bronchiolitis
  • Pneumonia
  • Severe asthma
  • Trauma
  • Diabetic ketoacidosis
  • Sepsis
  • Seizures

With the largest pediatric critical care team in the region, we can continuously monitor our young patients with advanced care needs. The PICU also provides after-surgery care, ECMO and dialysis services.

Care team and services vary by location.

For physicians: Refer a patient to Sanford Health.

 

Care When It’s Needed Most

Sanford Children’s believes in a team approach to children’s intensive care that includes families and providers.

The pediatric intensive care unit is family focused. Studies show that family-focused care results in shorter hospital stays and better long-term health outcomes.

Additionally, pediatric intensive care physicians, known as intensivists, work with nurses, primary care providers and other pediatric specialists to coordinate your child’s care. As a team, these professionals will support, stabilize and provide advanced care for critically ill children.

 

PICU vs. NICU

The PICU cares for children and adolescents in need of advanced medical treatments.

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) provides advanced care for critically ill newborns and their families with specialized equipment and providers.

 

PICU vs. Level II Pediatric Trauma Center

The PICU provides long-term critical care solutions for children.

The Level II Pediatric Trauma Centers in Fargo and Sioux Falls offer immediate lifesaving measures for children. From the first moment a child needs emergency treatment, they have access to experienced and dedicated board-certified pediatric surgeons and a trauma flight team providing rapid access to state-of-the-art operating rooms. Learn more.

 

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Sanford Children's Uses Advanced Procedures & Equipment

To bring the latest in care to pediatric patients across the Midwest, Sanford Children’s offers extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) services in Sioux Falls. ECMO provides cardiac and/or respiratory support to patients whose heart and lungs are severely ill. This allows the patient to get rest and heal.

ECMO manages conditions such as:

  • Severe pneumonia
  • Heart failure
  • Trauma
  • Respiratory failure
  • Sepsis and other overwhelming infections

Our specialized, coordinated ECMO team of nurses, fellowship-trained pediatric intensivists and respiratory therapists provides around-the-clock access to highly acute pediatric critical care in Sioux Falls.

Air Ambulances Transport Young Patients

Sanford AirMed saves lives in midair. Our air ambulance service has treated thousands of patients every year with life-saving care while getting them where they need to go safely and quickly.

With the most advanced PICUs in the region, Sanford Children’s receives many children from referring hospitals and physicians. Our air ambulance team includes pediatric intensive care specialists.

When time is critical, Sanford AirMed is available to transport patients 24/7. 

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A Baby’s Emergency Illness

Sanford Health providers like Kelsey Duchsherer spend each and every workday caring for their patients. But sometimes the tables turn.

For Duchsherer, who works as a nurse practitioner at Sanford Health in Minot, North Dakota, that day came last March when her youngest son, Ayce, got sick.

“I remember it like it was yesterday, unfortunately,” Duchsherer said.

What started as a typical cough began progressing rapidly. Soon he spiked a fever and couldn’t keep down any food or medicine. Duchsherer knew something was wrong and headed to the hospital in town.

When Ayce wasn’t responding to treatment in Minot, the pediatric team called Sanford AirMed to transport them to the nearest PICU.

However, a snowstorm had come in and was grounding flights across the region.

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